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May 14, 2012

Ragi Biscuits - Eggless, Butterless Finger Millet Cookies

Ragi biscuits with wheat flour & oats / eggless, butter less Ragi cookies (foxtail millet cookies) is my first post on baking recipes.Thanks a ton to my neighbor for teaching me this wonderful biscuit recipe. I had tried this so many times. It never flopped.Its a keeper recipe. Usually nankhatai is made with maida & vanaspathi/dalda in most of the Indian bakeries. First time I too tried only with maida & ghee. It tasted great , just melted in my mouth. But we all know maida and dalda are not advisable to eat.So I thought of using a combination of wheat flour, ragi flour , powdered oats and I replaced vanaspathi with cooking oil . It was excellent in taste. I couldn’t find any difference in the taste & texture. Do try this ragi, wheat flour nankhatai , I am sure u’ll love this. Its a fool proof recipe. I’ve tried to give the exact measurements. Please adjust the amount of oil if necessary. Also you can see the picture of the biscuit I made just with wheat flour and little maida.Try whichever u like :)

RAGI BISCUITS/NANKHATAI - STEP BY STEP PICTURES

>Powder the sugar in the mixer along with elachi seeds & cloves. Sieve and set aside.

Powder the oats and mix all the flours together. Heat it in the oven for 1-2 minutes.This is the most important step . If you forget to roast the flours , you get a raw smell in the biscuit.

Now take the cooking oil in a wide bowl and add the baking powder.Whisk well with ur hands for 10 mins.

Then add the sugar mixture and flour.Crush the cornflakes with ur hands into small pieces and add it to the flours before kneading.( This gives a crunchy taste here and there while eating. But this is optional. Mix it well and knead a soft , pliable, dough like chapathi dough. Dough should not be hard. It may crumble a little but no problem but if u knead well, it will be soft & it’ll be tight.

Now take little dough and make small , flat balls out of it. If you have cookie cutters,shape it as you desire.

Preheat the oven in convection mode at 180c.Arrange all the nankhatai in the baking tray and bake it for 20-25 mins in 180c convection mode..

The biscuits will raise slightly and the color turns.

Give a standing time of 10 minutes inside the oven and take the biscuits out. Allow it to cool completely. Store in an air-tight box.

Enjoy!

Note

Roast the flours together in oven for 1- 2 minutes in microwave mode. U’ll get a nice aroma. Mix well , break lumps if any and then add it to sugar.

Adjust the baking time as per your oven. Mine took exactly 25 minutes. Keep an eye after 15 minutes of baking. Over baking may lead to hard , burnt biscuits. Also under baking gives a raw , uncooked smell.It wont come out of the tray easily. It will break.In this condition , keep it for 5-10 more minutes. U’ll get it right.Little cracks may come , no problem.

If you want to add ghee or vanaspathi , just replace the cooking oil with it. The quantity would be the same ( may be little less).

Usually in bakeries, they add vanaspathi/ Dalda.

While kneading the dough , it shouldn’t be too crumble in nature.Add more oil if necessary. U should be able to make the flat balls without cracks.Roll it tight and make balls.(The procedure is the same as we make for gulab jamun.)

Don’t forget to add cloves.This gives the bakery flavour.

Adding cornflakes is purely optional .

I have added oats .So you may feel the biscuits are too soft. If u want , skip the oats and use wheat & ragi flour with little maida.

Store the biscuit in an air tight container.Its shelf life is 15 days.

These seem very interesting, as I am trying baking from unrefined ingredients these days. Could you please clarify a few things? Is ragi the same as baajra ? Also, when you say wheat flour, do you mean says, or wholewheat like they have in the US etc? I'm hoping you mean good old aata:) one more thing. Provided you are using aata, could I use that instead of ragi? As in, aata with a little maida, n may be oats?

Ragi is finger millet. This is different from bajra.. The atta i mentioned here is the one we use for making roti.. U can try this biscuit with either ragi or wheat flour alone with little maida for binding.. Hope i cleared ur doubts. Do try n let me know ur feedback :)